Topical items and views on the impact of digitisation on publishing and its content and the issues that make the news. This blog follows the report 'Brave New World',
(http://www.ewidgetsonline.com/vcil/bravenewworld.html ), published by the Booksellers Association of the UK and Ireland and authored by Martyn Daniels. The views and comments expressed are those of the author.

Friday, February 12, 2010

To Shazam

There should be a verb, to Shazam.

One of our favourite IPhone and Android apps is music identification software Shazam. When we hear a song and want to know what the song is, we merely Shazam it and it identifies it.

Shazam has announced that users can now create stations in Pandora which will include additional songs by the same artist and similar ones. If a song has been tagged, an icon appears in the "Tag Results" page which then takes the user directly to their radio station. The use of tags has also been linked to Last.fm to generate a list of upcoming shows based on the tagged artists and based on the user's location.

What Shazam is teaching us is the power of context, or information about the content or associated with it. In these cases the ability to extend past the track to others or to related concerts may have even more value and the search and discovery is not via a normal text search but by a sampling of the content itself.

Quote 'Google, in its brief, said "the purpose of copyright law is to promote the creation and distribution of expressive works. The Amended Settlement Agreement advances this purpose as much as any case or agreement in copyright history."'

If that statement isn't challenged legally they would have carte Blanche to do what they want. I had no idea they thought like that. Copyright is all about promotion and distribution according to Google. Smacked is my gob.

About Me

Before entering publishing I worked for many years as a Senior Executive in blue chip organisations in the retail, oil and automotive sectors. My publishing induction was initially as Director of Strategic Development at VISTA. There I was responsible for, and a contributor to, their highly acclaimed ‘Publishing in the 21st Century’ research series, the primary creator behind publishing services PubEasy and ‘batch.co.uk’, the initiator of the development of new Front Office systems to support publishers. In 2006 I joined Value Chain International(VCIL) initially as VP Marketing, Media and Publishing before becoming their President in 2009. In July 2011 the company's operations were acquired by Syncordia. I hold two non executive positions with publishing industry players Bibliophile Ltd and Haven Group and currently setting up Read Petite a service focused on providing digital short form material online via subscription.
Email mdaniels@opus57.co.uk